ABSTRACT
In spite of the fact that most teachers of Government have been trained in the use of instructional media, learning Government is a challenge as seen in performance indicators in Abia state. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe secondary school Government teachers’ use of instructional media for purposes of enhancing the teaching and learning of their students and the extent to which these media are used. The objectives of the study were to identify the instructional media available for teaching Government in the secondary schools in Abia state, identify the different types of instructional media available in secondary schools in Abia state, find out the frequency to which instructional media are used in teaching Government in secondary schools in Abia state and find out the contribution that instructional media has on learning of Government. It was based on John Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory (2005).This study employed the exploratory survey design because it surveyed the schools and described the situation of the use of instructional media in the secondary schools: The target population was 36 secondary schools in Abia state. 30 schools were randomly sampled for teacher and library personnel respondents and 10 for student respondents for the study. A pilot study was first carried out on a representative sample of one of the schools prior to actual data collection. The purpose was to pre-test the research instruments for reliability and validity as well as establish the feasibility of the study. It involved the use of questionnaires as the research instruments. Stratified random sampling was used for the two classes and finally simple random sampling for the student respondents. The sample size was 406 respondents comprising 346 students, 30 teachers Government and 30 library personnel. Questionnaires were used to elicit information from students, teachers and library personnel on the availability and use of instructional media. Only one library personnel for each school was involved. Data analysis was done using the Excel computer program as a tool in order to produce data which was presented in frequencies, means and percentages.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The teaching and learning Government as a subject as noted in students’ mean score in schools, has been characterised with low grades at school level and in national examinations. This can be seen in marks attained in the Nigeria Certificate of Secondary Education (NECO) examinations in Government subject that have been dropping in the past years (Muindi, 2012).
Probably, this has been caused by a number of factors and needs such as attitude, teaching and learning resources as well as likely over-reliance on the teacher-centred methodology (Ornestein, 1990). Performance in Government has over the years been below average nationally. This performance dipped in the results of 2011 in the NECO examinations released in 2012, where students scoring a mean of 36.42 marks as compared to 38.90 in 2010. The performance of boys in Government subject of 36.18 was lower than that of girls who scored 36.74 (Muindi, 2012).
Aba LGA secondary schools had their NECO examination results in Government subject mean score constantly fluctuate between 2009 and 2013, at 4.130 in 2009 to 3.674 in 2010, to 3.549 in 2011 then, a slight improvement to 4.816 in 2012 but again dropped to 3.9718 in 2013 (NECO reports, 2009-2015).
Teachers of Government are trained to employ all possible teaching strategies to teach their students. They have at their discretion, the capability to employ appropriate teaching methods and resources along the content they give to their students. The teachers have informed choices, to select from numerous types of resources, equipment and materials for Government learning and teaching (Kimemia, 2001). These equipment and materials however, unless used effectively by trained and qualified personnel, as expected, may not necessarily enhance student learning in Government.
Students therefore require maximum opportunity to understand what they are being taught, which is only possible if the content given in training is clearly understood within the available context with proper utilization of the existing resources.
Effective delivery of content by use of every appropriate strategy and resource is of great concern and is worth laying emphasis on (Dick & Carey, 2001). This study confirmed that teaching without using instructional media to enhance learning may negatively affect students’ learning.
Reasonable and practical involvement of learners should be allowed when their teachers’ use of instructional media in lessons to aid in internalizing the taught language concepts, develop given speaking, listening, reading and study skills thereby boosting its performance in Abia state. Students require concrete experiences to retain more knowledge and skills hence learn more effectively. The experiences involve the use of instructional media to facilitate learning and acquisition, retention and application of abstract symbols (Newby, et. al., 2000).
Over time in their studies, scholars have discussed the effectiveness of visual aids as being more than those of the lecture methods globally. The visual aids like charts and video enhance the amount of content the pupils remember, the enhanced understanding of concepts presented and the enjoyment experienced when the visual aids are utilized (Farrant, 1964). The role of these materials in teaching and learning has neither changed nor ceased. Where these vital resources are not used to the optimum, students’ learning may be compromised.
This study confirmed that substantial access to resources contributes to the teachers’ and learners’ competence in utilizing them, which remains an exception, given challenges related to access and availability to both students and teachers in schools (Schofield, et.al. 1998). Thus, availability and effective use of the resources for teaching and learning Government meant pairing the resources with an instructional approach. This was very different from the traditional one where more information was therefore needed on the nature and extent of teachers’ experience in use of these technologies (Rosen & Weil, 1999). Hence, how teachers viewed these resources (Kerr, 1996), how they understood their impact in use (NCATE, 1996) and how they altered their instructional practices in order to use them effectively (Haymore, et.al. 1997), was a concern for this study. This study established whether and how often the materials were used by teachers in enhancing learning of Government and the use of the teaching aids by teachers of Government.
This study too re-emphasizes what scholars in Nigeria have emphasized: the need to ensure availability of many types of equipment of the audio and visual nature that can be used to teach and learn Government (Kimemia, 2001). Such types of equipment are meant to enhance the learning and hence improve grades at national exams (Twoli, et. al., 2007).
This study attempted to investigate the use of instructional media by focusing on the teaching and learning of Government in secondary schools in Abia state. The study sought to find out whether the quality of learning of Government could be improved by utilizing the existing Instructional Media among other resources in these schools. This study also sought to establish and describe the extent of utilization of Instructional Media in the teaching of Government and explored the teachers’ views too on the use of instructional media for teaching Government.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
There had been a poor performance in the performance of students in Government subject in Abia state secondary schools over the years (Aba LGA Education Board Results Analysis reports, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013). This called for urgent measures to identify issues that may have posed challenges in the teaching and learning of Government subject. Some key issues that affect the quality of education are curriculum, instructional materials and equipment, and teachers, among others (NECO, 2004). Factors like learning resources and over-reliance on traditional methodology like the lecture method (Twoli, et al., 2007), cause students to perform unsatisfactorily.
Although Government subject is a compulsory subject in the Nigerian school curriculum (Ministry of Education Syllabus, Nigeria, 2003), its teaching has over time faced enhancement challenges. Aba LGA secondary schools for example, have had their Government subject mean score steadily plunge from 2009 at 4.130 to 3.674 in 2010, to
3.549 in 2011 then, a slight improvement to 4.816 in 2012 but again dropped to 3.9718 in 2013 in the Nigeria Certificate of Secondary Education (NECO) national examinations in Government subject. The task of this study was, therefore, to find out whether the use of instructional media in teaching was a cause of this poor performance. Thus, the main concern of this study was to investigate, identify, and describe the availability of instructional media and the teachers’ use of these media and whether their use enhance students’ learning in Abia state.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the secondary school teachers’ use of Instructional Media in enhancing the teaching and learning of Government in Abia state and then make necessary suggestions and recommendations.
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study were to:
1. Identify the instructional media available for teaching Government in the secondary schools in Abia state.
2. Identify the different types of instructional media available in secondary schools in Abia state.
3. Find out the frequency to which instructional media are used in teaching Government in secondary schools in Abia state
4. Find out the contribution that instructional media has on learning of Government.
1.5 Research Questions
To carry out this research, the study addressed itself to the following research questions.
1. What instructional resources for teaching Government are available in secondary schools in Abia state?
2. What type of instructional media do teachers of Government use in teaching?
3. Are there challenges facing teachers when using the available instructional media?
4. In what way does the use of these instructional materials affect learning?
1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study
Scope of the Study
The study was carried out within Abia state in Abia state. It focused on secondary school Government teachers’ use of Instructional Media in enhancing learning of Government and confined itself to SS 1 and 2 classes only since these are the foundational classes whose strong foundation directly bears on their final performance at Form Four.
Limitations of the study
Research did not involve all secondary schools in Nigeria. It would be a very expensive implication (Kombo and Tromp, 2006). The researcher limited the study to selected secondary schools in Abia state. Moreover, only SS 1 and 2 classes of Government, their teachers of Government and their library personnel were be focussed on. Due to many factors that affect language learning like the learning environment and number of students in class, this study limited itself to instructional media use in teaching and learning Government. The large size of the county made it difficult to cover it wholly. Due to the nature of the program and brevity of the three month study leave for the researcher, the study was limited to Aba sub-county in 10 schools for the student sample and all the schools for teacher and library personnel samples.
1.7 Significance of the Study
The research sought to give an insight into Government teachers’ use of Instructional Media in enhancing their students’ learning. It investigated the availability of Instructional Media and their frequency of use while teaching. The findings of the study will be helpful to curriculum designers and developers of Government Curriculum at the Nigeria Institute of Education. It will provide research-based data for their emphasis on the production and use of instructional media in Government curricula that they design and develop. The recommendations from the study findings will also benefit the curriculum developers and designers in their suggestion to teacher trainers on materials in enhancing teaching and learning Government in secondary schools.
Government educationists at institutions of higher learning that train teachers will be encouraged to emphasize more on the use of Instructional Media for Government lessons in the training of their students on how various Instructional Media are operated. This will be applied by teachers as they teach in secondary schools.
The findings of the study will also be useful in encouraging teachers to enable them to be more effective in their teaching as their awareness on effective use is enhanced by use of instructional media. It is hoped that Government teachers will employ more of the use of Instructional Media in their curriculum delivery and enhanced learning will take place with more interest and enthusiasm hence the teachers will perform better in their lessons and learners will achieve enhanced learning.
Scholars, curriculum supervisors like quality assurance officers, head teachers and parents who will advise teachers on the implementation of media use in teaching may find this study quite helpful in their assessment and advice on teacher effectiveness.
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